How to Grow Old by John Bishop

How to Grow Old by John Bishop – A middle-aged man moaning. I was intrigued to see he is going to publish a book about getting old. He is a comedian and I’ve seen him in TV shows. As he is hilarious, I imagined the book will be funny. So, I borrowed it from the library and I took it with me on the train. With two 3 hours trips, I imagined I had plenty of time to finish the book and I did.

The book is not as funny as I was expecting it to be. Hence I’m only giving it 3.5 stars out of 5. He says that he is an white, heterosexual, middle-aged man, British, and with an working-class background. The only things I have in common with him are the fact and I’m also white and heterosexual, so that’s not very much. He touches on some interesting problems, like social media and the impact it has. He talks about friendship and the struggle middle-aged people have to stay relevant. I loved his comparison of friends with tattoos. It was hilarious.

In some ways I found the book sad. He got married too fast, had children too fast, and now that the children left the home, him and his wife wondered what they can do from that point on. For me, this makes the book relevant for 20 years old, who think they know better and take rushed decisions. Before getting married, he and his wife never went on a holiday together, because he said there was no time. After their children left, they started going on holidays and city breaks to rekindle their relationship. This is something a lot of people are doing, but, for me, it seems both strange and wasteful (time, money, and spikes up pollution). I couldn’t relate to those stories, as I didn’t get married fast, I knew my husband good before taking this step, and we don’t have children, and I didn’t find them funny.

How to Grow Old by John Bishop

Details about the picture: There is no connection with mice, these aren’t even mentioned in the book. I just bought a few of them and thought it would be nice to use them as props in a photo shoot before eating them.
My rating: 3.5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: Yes
Published by: Ebury Press
Year it was published: 2019
Format: Hardcover
Genre(s): Memoir
Pages: 235

About the author: John Bishop is a comedian, very well known in Britain. He was born in Liverpool. Now he is in his 50s, married with three sons.
Another book by him is John Bishop: How Did All This Happen? On Goodreads there are two different authors under the same name, John Bishop the British comedian and a reverend. It can be puzzling to see a religious book by a comedian and, in fact, it’s not.
Website & Social Media Links: johnbishoponline